If you want to buy red roses this week in Saudi Arabia, you'll have to hit the black market, reports BBC News:Saudi authorities consider Valentine's Day, along with a host of other annual celebrations, as un-Islamic. In addition to the prohibition on celebrating non-Islamic festivals, the authorities consider Valentine's Day as encouraging relations between men and women outside wedlock - punishable by law in the conservative kingdom.
With a ban on almost all things red, young lovers are having to get creative and to sneak around to observe the tradition. Flowers are being delivered under cover of night. It all sounds terribly romantic.
Of course, if you hate Valentine's Day and want to go someplace where you face almost no pressure to produce a teddy bear, here's your vacation destination.
Reader Comments ( Page 2 of 5)
16. Dear Sara: Read the Koran. I did. It's just as bad as all the others. Wrap your brain around the 'concept'(my emphasis) of 'God IS Love.' Take your time, it's okay if it takes (a lot) of research and getting in touch with yourself- i.e. God's manifestation within you. Love, and Happy Valentine's Day! Robert.
robert at 1:31PM on Feb 12th 2008
17. Do your homework
xx
Robert, if you want to take a shot at me, stand up and take it. I'll be very happy to reply on any topic you choose.
If I want to reply to more than one post, I will. Do you find that threatening or something?
I know as much as you do about valentine's day but my posts are long enough as it is. Did you have some kind of point?
Clif Kuplen at 1:22PM on Feb 12th 2008
18. # 9, Clif. I will admit that that much like Christmas, Valentine's Day has become a bit commercial....and if I ever hear that Vermont Teddy Bear ad one more time ,I'm going to gag...but..I'm kind of sorry for you. You have such an incredibly unsentimental attitude toward the holiday, that I cannot help but think that you unfortunately have not found anyone to share your life with.
April at 1:34PM on Feb 12th 2008
19. Dear Clif: Touchy, touchy! My goodness, I think you and Chandler need to hook up (Bring flowers!). Alas, I have a screenplay I need to finish, so, I'm done here! Happy Valentines Day Ada!
robert at 1:38PM on Feb 12th 2008
20. You have such an incredibly unsentimental attitude toward the holiday, that I cannot help but think that you unfortunately have not found anyone to share your life with.
April at 1:34PM on Feb 12th 2008
xxxx
your psychic powers are whacked, April. I love my wife 365 days a year, have since we met in the '80's and try to show it. She reciprocates.
You might want to try that yourself if you're not alone or whatever you said.
Clif Kuplen at 2:11PM on Feb 12th 2008
21. 19. Dear Clif: Touchy, touchy! My goodness, I think you and Chandler need to hook up (Bring flowers!). Alas, I have a screenplay I need to finish, so, I'm done here! Happy Valentines Day Ada!
robert at 1:38PM on Feb 12th 2008
xxx
Ahh, the world awaits. At long last, plan TEN from outer space!!
Too bad Seinfeld is off. Except for the funny part, you were pretty good at writing about nothing.
Clif Kuplen at 2:20PM on Feb 12th 2008
22. I may have overlooked something at 21. Could Robert's last name be 'bowfinger'?
Clif Kuplen at 2:21PM on Feb 12th 2008
23. Clif..I love my husband 365 days a year, but once a year I do like to do something special for him. Nothing wrong with holidays. It gives people something to look forward to.
April at 2:34PM on Feb 12th 2008
24. Hey, I'm back. Screenplay's done. P.S. Clif, while you were ranting and picking fights, I just sold my movie for $1.5 mil!!! I'm going to go out now and buy my wife something really nice for Valentine's Day...since you apparently don't have a job, would your wife like something too?
ROFLMAO - Robert.
robert at 2:45PM on Feb 12th 2008
25. Oh my gosh robert
Three words: Love is Love - Chandler pointed out quite enthusiastically that god is not about love, but war baby. your god loves war. and rape and uck, other unmentionable things.
luv u 2
TJ at 2:46PM on Feb 12th 2008
26. 24. Hey, I'm back. Screenplay's done. P.S. Clif, while you were ranting and picking fights, I just sold my movie for $1.5 mil!!!
xxx
hey, robert - while you were out, i discovered faster than light drive and the cure for cancer!
Clif Kuplen at 2:49PM on Feb 12th 2008
27. Dave said: What an ego you have to presume that you can tell God He's unjust for killing a human being.
__________________________
Humans are unjust in killing other humans - especially when they say it is in the name of their supposed god.
TJ at 2:53PM on Feb 12th 2008
28. Dear Clif: OMG!!! You really DON'T have a job! I'm so sorry. Look, if it helps, I just created a character based on YOU for the sequel. But remember what the disclaimer says- any resemblence to real persons and such...
robert at 3:02PM on Feb 12th 2008
29. April, we will modestly celebrate Feb 14 too. Our little spaniel Ticks will be a year old then and maybe I can find him a nice churchyard to pee on as a special treat. He'd probably prefer a pizza crust,though. As to what to look forward to, I don't have any problem with tomorrow so far, but I have to admit my life isn't missing much of anything or I'm blissfully ignorant, one.
Clif Kuplen at 2:59PM on Feb 12th 2008
30. Robert,
I can show you hundreds of churches that aren't rolling in money, and many pastors and missionaries who are living by faith from one week to the next. Sorry if you get your impressions of the church from TBN, but that really doesn't represent Christianity.
Second, your pronouncement that the Bible is fabrication and second hand info isn't scholarly wisdom, but pop culture rehash. Reading The DaVinci Code isn't considered research. As a Master's candidate in theology, I'd eat your lunch if you really wanted to go there as far as manuscript history. There is little debate even among liberal scholars that the gospels were written in the first century A.D., and John and Matthew were first hand witnesses of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. The gospel of Mark, the earliest (besides the possibility of Q), was probably actually Peter's gospel, written by John Mark, during the lifetime of Peter. So much for secondhand news...
That whole theory of the Catholic perversion of the "real" scriptures also doesn't hold up - we have manuscripts going back to 70 AD, (Ryland’s fragment of the gospel of John), and none of the manuscripts we have support the notion of later century changes to control the masses (no pun intended). Sure, you can find people with agendas like Bart Ehrman with an axe to grind, but I dare you to read a book like "Reinventing Jesus" by Komoszewski. I doubt you'd be so smug if you actually had a shred of real information to go on.
Saying something confidently because you saw a show on the History Channel isn't the same as really knowing something. I'm sure you're white, under 30 (probably under 25 I'd guess) and you think you're smarter than most people. On this subject, you're certainly not more educated.
Dave at 3:12PM on Feb 12th 2008